Bleep

V1
Bonafide hardcore master Marc Acardipane AKA The Mover kicks off the remix arm of his The Most Famous Unknown reissues project for Planet Phuture with one of his most classic tunes. ‘Stereo Master’ originally emerged in the mid-90s under Acardipane’s Marshall Masters alias, but the track’s no-nonsense combination of icy synth stabs and booming kick drums still pack a punch to this day. Indeed, given how these rave sonics have come back into fashion of late, we sense that a lot of the new-school owe a debt to the Acardipane sound. Perc is one of those modern artists who knows their history, and on his ‘Stereo Master’ remix the Perc Trax boss soups up the original with a shot of Surgeon’s needle-gun techno precision.

V2
Marc Acardipane is a genuine hardcore legend - you might well know his Dick Rules collaboration ‘I Like It Loud’ from its subsequent Scooter version, a top 20 hit in the UK back in 2003. For his latest trick we find Acardipane accompanying his bumper retrospective collection The Most Famous Unknown with a series of remix EPs. The Most Famous Unknown Remixes V2 sees Nina Kraviz, Gabber Eleganza, Dasha Rush and Solid Blake piling in on the fun, and the results are suitably wild. These tracks are huger-than-huge DJ tools, their beats not so much exiting the speakers as tearing through them. The Kraviz and Blake takes may be a little wackier while Rush and Eleganza go straight for the jugular, but ultimately all four of the tracks are primed for maximum dancefloor destruction. There are many ways to skin a cat, after all.

V3
The third of Marc Acardipane’s The Most Famous Unknown remix EPs provides an insight into both the German artist’s prolific output and the cultures his music has helped to spawn. Even though tracks from three of Acardipane’s projects are included here - Rave Creator, Subtopia and Trip Commando - these represent only a small sample of the aliases Acardipane has used down the years. The four remixers here are all, in different ways, artists in Acardipane’s image. Some of the relationships are obvious - Kilbourne’s gabber fury and Minimum Syndicat’s thudding hardcore clearly derive from Acardipane’s own output. VTSS and Umwelt may steer closer to techno and EBM, but Acardipane’s maximalist sonics and commitment to music of utmost rave potential can also be heard in their work. All four remixers bring their A-game here, and the result is a selection of tunes of which Acardipane himself would be proud of.

V4
Hardcore legends old and new unite on Marc Acardipane’s The Most Famous Unknown Remixes V4. This edition sees some artists from earlier in the series coming back for a second go at reworking classic Acardipane tunes. VTSS, a star of the third Most Famous Unknown Remixes 12”, returns here alongside Randomer as Body Sushi. Their take on Acardipane’s Marshall Masters jam E-Day is one of the most faithful Acardipane reimaginings on any of the four EPs, leaning heavily into the German’s pounding hardcore style. Dasha Rush also gets a second bite of the cherry, swapping out the unrelenting techno beats of his ‘Escape From 2017’ flip that appeared on The Most Famous Unknown Remixes V2 for a hauntological ambient version here. The A-side finds Stranger and JASSS respectively turning out hardtech and junglist versions of Acardipane originals.